Sony XF90/ X900F Review

Design

Overall

The 55-inch Sony KD-55XF9005 is a good-looking TV with a sleek design, but its "duck feet" stand will divide opinions. If you are struggling to fit the television on your AV rack, you can also reverse the positions of the feet so they point inwards and require less footprint, although this method of installation is not explicitly stated in the user manual.

Build quality is as expected for a midrange set. Power cable is affixed to the chassis.

Bezel

The bezel is surprisingly thin, belying the underlying full-array local dimming (FALD) direct-lit LED backlighting. There's a BRAVIA inscription on the top left corner, and a Sony logo at the bottom.

Connections

Four HDMI inputs are provided (not shown). However, only HDMI2 and HDMI3 are the full-bandwidth ports that can support 2160p@50/60 at higher bit depth or chroma... you'll need to use these for Apple TV 4K box (with Dolby Vision), Sky Q, PS4 Pro and Xbox One X consoles, and remember to change [HDMI signal format] to "Enhanced format". You can still connect your 4K Blu-ray player (most Ultra HD Blu-rays run at 2160p24) to either HDMI1 or HDMI4.

Remote Control

Slight improvement over Sony's remote controls over last few years, with discrete buttons. Still lacks the premium feel.

Colours

Before Calibration

After Calibration

Colour Checker

After calibration, none of the 140 measured colour patches exhibited inaccuracy that exceeded the humanly perceptible threshold of delta error (dE) 3, which is remarkable considering there's no advanced colour management system (CMS) on the Sony XF90. Memory colours such as skin tones and foliage will look very realistic and natural in all types of SDR content.

Spectral Power of Distribution

The Sony 55XF90 uses PFS phosphor in the LED backlight.

Motion

Clarity

The Bravia XF90 or X900F carries the Japanese manufacturer's novel X-Motion Clarity technology which combines the light-boosting potential of the FALD system and backlight blinking to achieve high motion resolution without incurring significant increase in flicker or decrease in brightness.

The X-Motion Clarity system is activated when [Motionflow] is set to "Smooth", "Standard" or "Custom" with [Clearness] at "1". To curb the amount of soap opera effect (SOE) introduced to 24fps films, it's best to optimise the [Motionflow] "Custom" settings.

Smoothness

Handles 24p video signal natively without any sign of telecinic judder. Unlike last year's XE90, the Sony XF9005 does not suffer from frame repeat problems with 50Hz content.

Video Processing

Upscaling

The onboard X1 Extreme chipset delivers the best in-TV upscaling we've seen from consumer-grade televisions, presenting crisp detail with minimal ringing even from standard-definition material.

Gaming

1080p SDR

Input lag is higher by one frame in 1080p SDR because of the upscaling needed, which won't please Nintendo Switch owners.

4K HDR

HDR games from PS4 Pro and Xbox One X feel responsive and look impactful with sufficient brightness.

Video Review

Conclusion

Pros

Superb motion sharpness thanks to X-Motion Clarity

Class-leading upscaling quality

Impactful HDR picture

Highly accurate colours after calibration

Deep blacks by LED LCD standards

Cons

Narrow viewing angle because of VA LCD panel

1080p input lag higher by 1 frame

Clunky Android Smart TV system

Only two full-bandwidth (18Gbps) HDMI ports

Controversial feet design

Verdict

A versatile midrange LED LCD TV that excels particularly with motion clarity, upconversion quality and HDR impact. We don't think you can find another 2018 model 55in TV with better picture quality under the £2000 mark (at this time of writing in April 2018).